Hidden Meanings
by CreationsGoneAwry
Summary: Solana just learned that Lunick has been kidnapped by an Almia criminal who goes by the name of Dr. Kipling. She has to travel to a faraway region with only her sidekick, Plusle, that has stayed with her, to try and rescue her friend. limittooshort.
1. Learning the Truth

**Full Summary: **Solana just learned that Lunick has been captured by an Almian criminal who goes by the name of Dr. Kipling. She has to travel to the faraway region to rescue him with Plusle's help. She learns that she and Lunick have much more in common than they would have thought, and that maybe, just maybe, they can solve the mystery of Altru's underground together.

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><p><strong>Hidden Meanings<strong>

An 18-year-old Ranger wandered down the old, beaten path leading from Fall City to Ringtown, glancing around at all the scenery she'd missed while settling down in the city. Trees, grass, the smell of wood... Everything was so different between the two towns that she found herself wondering just how they coexisted in the same region - let alone how a city could be located next to such a dark tunnel.

A sudden rustling of leaves from outside caught her attention and Solana giggled as Plusle hopped around excitedly. It cried in happiness and skipped in ecstasy while alongside its Ranger, and even when it calmed down the tiniest bit it would get more energy and chatter joyfully.

The blue-haired girl laughed at her Pokemon. "Calm down. We're almost there."

Currently they were making their way to Ringtown to meet with Spenser because he finally had a mission for her to do. At first she was disappointed because she wouldn't have much time to spend with her family but once she thought about it she was pleased - she hadn't taken on a mission in quite some time. It'd been at least since she relocated with her family to Fall City that she'd taken on something of importance. Of course she'd gone through the Forest a few times to look for Larry's "precious" but other than that, there wasn't anything exciting, so she wanted to see what was planned for her.

As she trekked through the last pathways of the Krokka Tunnel with Plusle she heaved a huge sigh, relieved to have made it through without having to do too many captures. Sometimes, she decided, it was best to avoid all the Pokemon in the wild for a while.

She hopped over the hills leading out of the tunnel and began walking towards Ringtown, where she met up with Spenser. Plusle squealed with delight at the sight of the old friend but Solana could sense there was something wrong; she knew that look. Besides, why would he call her here if the mission was a happy one? She'd quickly outgrown petty tasks except for Larry's because apparently he really liked her.

The green-haired man's face was scrunched, his eyebrows lowered to make him look a little confused with a pinch of anger. With a simple nod of his head he turned around, muttered a "come on" and led her into the Lyra Forest.

He led her past the wild Pokemon, some of which stopped and stared at the disheveled Rangers, and around the bends and turns until they safely made it out. Solana could see the liveliness of Ringtown and though she knew Spenser was upset she couldn't help but crack a grin. This was the life she remembered.

Spenser opened the door to the base, allowing Solana to head in first, and closed it behind him, locking it from the inside. Solana glanced around the vast room, checking for differences that may have happened within the five months she was away. She spotted nothing out of the ordinary: just the regular Rangers, the Operator behind the desk, and, from what she could hear, the Dragonite that served as the bus and Spenser's Fearow. Nothing was missing.

But wait. Something _was _missing. Solana's heart sank a little bit as realization dawned on her; how could she not have noticed?

"Where's Lunick?"

Spenser turned around from his post at the door and stared at her. He bit his lip. "That's what I need to talk to you about." He walked up to his usual spot at the front of the base. Solana followed him, standing a few feet from him, watching his expression. By now the other Rangers had gone upstairs to attend to other business - Spenser had already relayed the story to them and they didn't really want to hear it again, especially not when it came to telling the most talented but stubborn Ranger in the base.

"So…I need you to do this mission for me." He cracked his knuckles, stalling. How could he put this delicately? Sure, it wasn't like it was easy news to break to a fiery person like Solana, but he had to _somehow. _After all, that's exactly what he called her there for. He sighed. "Solana…"

"Spenser," she broke in impatiently, putting a hand up but letting it fall after she was done talking. "I can handle it. Really."

"Fine." He braced himself. "Lunick has been captured."

"_What?!_"

Plusle whimpered and covered its ears, scrunching itself into a ball on the floor to hide from Solana's outburst as if she was angry at it.

Sure, Solana could totally handle it. Really. That's why she was hyperventilating right now and praying to Arceus that her friend wasn't dead and hoping that he was okay and worrying and thinking about what she was going to do to save him and what was going to happen to her and -

"Solana?" Spenser interrupted her raging thoughts.

She managed a small noise to acknowledge his presence, her mind still overridden.

"I know this has to be hard for you to grasp, but I really need you to focus right now, okay?"

Solana sighed, pulling together all the sanity she had left, and nodded. She closed her eyes, ready for her mission. It didn't take a genius to know it was about rescuing her dark blue-haired friend.

Spenser ran a hand through his green hair and sighed. "Do you remember all those times I used to tell you guys about the Ranger School I went to in the Almia region?" he asked, unsurely at first. He was torn. He'd already lost his second-best Ranger, and now he was going to lose his best. Luckily there wasn't anything going on in Fiore at the time; however, the same couldn't be said for its unfortunate neighboring region.

She nodded, remembering how entertaining it was hearing about his, Cameron's and Joel's childhood lives together at the school. Spenser and Joel would always bicker and Cameron would have to be the mediator to keep the peace between the two. "Yeah," she managed, smiling a little bit and noticing that Spenser had fixated his eyes on the ground at his feet.

"Well, I need you to go there in order to rescue Lunick."

"The Ranger School?"

He laughed. "No. Almia." He finally brought his head up to meet her eyes, a serious gleam in his own. "I've received word that he's been captured by someone in disguise. It's a man who goes by the name Doctor Kipling. We don't know anything else about him, though - it's all hearsay from Murph at the Altru Building."

Wait - did he say Murph? Solana knew Murph!

"Murph's working for Altru now?" she asked incredulously, momentarily forgetting everything besides her wandering thoughts of how her plump friend was doing.

"Yes, but now isn't the time to be thinking about his newfound job. I need you to bring Lunick back."

Solana nodded, disregarding everything except the task at hand. But there was still one problem: how would she get to Almia?

"You'll be taking Dragonite to get there," Spenser said, answering her unspoken question. "I don't want you to be too obvious, so I'm having him take you to Chicole Village, which is the smallest town in Almia. Murph says he knows a Ranger who lives there and he's an expert at what he does. Murph will meet you there. Oh, and there's just one more tiny thing." He glanced down at her.

When she met his gaze he spoke again.

"You'll be undercover, so you need a name change."

Her eyes grew bigger and wider and with another incredulous stare she gasped.

"I know, I know," he began, "but Joel, Cameron, and I have been talking about it. We decided on the name Auburn." He twiddled his thumbs, still a bit worried about sending his best Ranger out so abruptly. "It's still a little mysterious, just like Solana, and that was the only name that really stood out to us because we knew you'd hate everything else we came up with - if you don't hate this, too, that is." _And it lets everyone you meet know you're just as fiery as your name, _he added to himself, allowing a smile to form._  
><em>

Solana gulped and nodded again. So even if she met up with Lunick, she'd be undercover and in disguise so she probably wouldn't even be able to tell him it was her. She sighed.

"Okay." And she awaited the rest, knowing there was more because of the look in his stern-but-caring eyes.

He turned around now, not wanting to see Solana's expression to what he next added.

"I want you to leave by tomorrow morning."

…

Shirts, shorts, skirts, pants, headbands, undergarments, hairbrush, toothbrush, hair ties, mixed in with a lunchbox consisting of nonperishable foods went into a brand new backpack. She'd be too easily recognized in her Ranger outfit with her old bag. It panged her to stow them away in her closet, though, as she had grown quite accustomed to them over the past year and a half she was working as a Ranger. It was just her normal attire. But now she wouldn't even be able to wear her usual ponytail. Sighing, she grabbed the hair ties from her pack and stuffed them into a dresser drawer. She yanked the ponytail holder out of her blue hair. Without its tamer her blue hair cascaded past her shoulders, halfway down her back. She looked at the reflection in the mirror, not believing it to be hers.

Solana wiped away the stray tears with the back of her hand. She couldn't think about it now. Right now, Spenser needed her. The Ranger Bases needed her.

Lunick needed her.

She felt a twinge of pain as she thought of him. What kind of person would kidnap a Ranger, anyway? Where was the sense in that? Why was Lunick in Almia, anyway? And why would Spenser send _her _and not some other ranger for this task? Did that mean that he favored her over the others? But she hadn't even been working nearly as long as the others had. It made her feel slightly better that he favored her, but she still wished she didn't have to go.

Sighing, she sat down on her bed, holding her face in her hands as she sifted through her thoughts. Why her? She didn't want to deal with all of this. Why couldn't she have been a Pokemon, like her Plusle? It was just napping in the corner of the room; Solana envied it for a moment.

A knock at the door snapped her out of her trance momentarily. Plusle perked up, too, but calmed down once it saw a familiar face. Solana's mother entered with a somber expression.

"So you're leaving now," she stated. She sat down next to her daughter, putting an arm around her shoulders. Her own brown hair was down as well but it wasn't quite the same length as Solana's, falling just below her shoulders. Solana leaned against her mother.

"I don't leave until morning," the blue-haired girl said. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about it. On one hand she and Lunick were good friends and good friends save each other from disasters such as this. But on the other hand she'd only spent five months with her family and she felt she needed more time. And she was an only child, so how did her mother feel about all this? Surely she couldn't be too thrilled…

"I'm sorry, Mom," she whispered, realizing this. She lifted her head and stared at her floor where the fat backpack lay. "I don't know how hard this is for you."

Her mother rubbed her back reassuringly.

"Well, sometimes life's funny like that. Take care of your responsibilities, though - we'll always have your back," she answered. "And we'll always support you, no matter what." After a moment she stood up and headed towards the door, looking back at Solana. "I'll leave you alone now, but you might want to talk to your father. We'll have a nice breakfast ready for you in the morning before you leave." She opened the door. "Goodnight, Solana."

Solana looked up. "Goodnight, Mom. Thanks."

Her mother nodded and smiled before closing the door behind her, leaving the Ranger to herself. She sighed. She didn't really want to talk to her father. They'd been... a little detached for quite some time and she didn't feel as if this was a moment to start the bonding. She groaned and lay back on her bed, exasperated.

In twelve hours she would be on her way to Almia. It would be a new life for her. New clothes, new hairstyle…new name. _No, _she told herself, shaking her head. _It's not a new name, it's just a codename. Everything will be back to normal once all this is out of the way._

Naturally, she wasn't allowed to tell anybody anything. Her mother didn't know anything of what was going on besides Solana had another mission to do and it would take quite a while, so she probably wouldn't be able to return home anytime soon. She wasn't told her new name or where she was going, though, which had to have been scary for a parent.

In any case, though, more than likely nobody would even know it was Solana.

Not even Lunick would know.

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><p><strong>AN: **Hi, there! First off, lemme thank you for reading my first Pokemon multichap fanfic :). I hope to keep this interesting while keeping it accurate so let me know if I'm missing anything (i.e. keeping IC, getting facts right, stuff like that). I haven't played the first Pokemon Ranger in a while but it is my favorite so I sort of know what I'm doing, anyway :). For those of you who really want a quick Rangershipping fic, sorry! You'll have to wait quite a few chapters before anything major happens. If I get a lot of feedback right away I'll make sure I update ASAP, but for right now I'm planning on updating about once, maybe twice, a week. I'm a junior in high school and as you may or may not know that's the busiest year, so don't hold me to my updating schedule. Oh, and tell me if I need to change the name. It sounds kind of generic to me so I might be changing it later. Okay...so the A/N that took up 1/5 of the chapter is done. Anyway, I hope you liked it! Please review to keep me motivated :D.

And also, _[Edited 11/25/11] _I edited a lot of stuff in here and am getting ready to post the second chapter. A lot of the dialog's changed but unless you're one of my original 25 viewers you won't tell the difference and even if you're one of the first it's not a lot to shake a stick at. I just made it make more sense(and I'll actually post the differences I made next chapter so you guys won't have to read through this AN again). _THANKS FOR READING._

**_Edited again as of 10/10/14! Finally getting ready to post the newest chapter. Wonder if there's still anyone out there..._**

_~CGA_


	2. Preparation

**Hidden Meanings**

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><p>She was alone. The Dragonite dropped her off in a four-house village surrounded by trees. Solana's blue hair tangled in front of her face as she brushed herself off from the landing. She waved goodbye to the Dragonite, thanking it, and ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to calm it.<p>

She fumbled about in her tight blue jeans, muttering to and cursing herself for keeping the dreaded things. Her thighs felt raw from the material that rubbed against them and her mother made sure she kept the scissors so Solana couldn't destroy the denim. She was grateful to at least have her regular shoes so she wouldn't have sore feet, though. A sudden squeak came from her backpack as she readjusted it and she apologized to the Plusle that occupied it. If she walked alongside her Pokemon someone may recognize her as a Ranger - and she was supposed to be undercover… which brought her to the back of her thoughts and the name _Auburn _made an appearance. She scrunched her face in disgust.

There was a sound of the creaking of a door and she whipped her head towards the noise, finding the source to be a male, maybe around her age. He had brown hair that was shaped rather oddly, sitting on top of his head but sticking out in the back. He shut the door behind himself and when he turned his head he gasped.

_Oh no, _Solana thought. What if he recognized her? She was frozen to the ground, her feet not tearing away from the grassy terrain. Wait, who was he anyway? He couldn't know her if she didn't know him, right?

The young male started towards her, pushing his hair back as if distressed. He forced his feet forward while Solana's stayed rooted in their imaginary trenches. Once he was stopped in front of her he offered a warm smile, his blue eyes shining.

Solana tried her best to smile back but she was still a little shaken up. She tried to push her thoughts away, seeing as how nobody could possibly recognize a Fiore Ranger in Almia, right? Though, it wouldn't be too hard to notice a blue-haired girl carrying an unusually large backpack who had trouble walking in normal denim jeans.

"My name is Kellyn."

The stranger's voice disrupted her mindless ranting and she snapped out of her daze, staring at the boy. His warm expression never faded and his blue eyes peered into her reds. She stared, dumbstruck, at the hand he offered her before mentally heaving a huge sigh and smiling herself. She accepted his hand. At least he seemed friendly enough, and he didn't seem to know who she was either, so that was a plus.

"I'm S…_Auburn_," she replied, correcting herself while resisting the urge to scrunch up her nose, calming down as she shook his hand. She felt her legs loosen and she shook them out a little bit when the greeting was done.

"You don't have to be careful with me," the boy, Kellyn, said. Solana gave him a confused glance. "I know you're Solana." He nodded. "Murph's inside waiting for us. There's no time to lose - c'mon!"

She felt her face fall. Wasn't she being careful? How could he know who she was if she'd never even seen this guy before?

"How do you know my - "

"I'm one of Almia's top Rangers," he said a little matter-of-factly, grinning, seemingly ignoring her almost-question. Top Ranger. Solana pondered what that could've meant before he continued. "I've worked with Spenser before and he's a great guy. Now come on!" He led her into the house he previously stepped out of. She scratched at her head, confused, before following him.

It was a beautiful home, Solana concluded. It was furnished with a small three-seat couch, a flat screen television, a personal computer, and a big, white fridge with all sorts of pictures - Pokemon and people alike. There was a huge staircase in the top right corner, which curled around to the top floor. It reminded her a bit of her own house and she sighed, everything coming back to her.

She just felt so rushed. Normally there would be at least a little bit of background before she was sent out on a mission. Spenser only told her she would be meeting Murph in Almia - not Kellyn - so she was a bit suspicious. She had very little information from Kellyn so far and she was supposed to trust him? He already knew her real name, and he was something called a _Top Ranger. _She felt a little uneasy, like she couldn't trust him as far as Lunick could throw him. Her expression fell slightly as she thought of him.

Her somber feeling left her, though, as she spotted a very familiar figure standing off to the side. He looked so professional, she told herself, his hair no longer completely spiked up and instead combed down neatly, sitting atop his head in a calm manner. A black suit covered his entire body save for his hands, the black and gray complementing his kempt hair. _He's lost weight. _She gaped. He actually looked…_handsome._

He offered a small wave before his expression darkened as he saw Solana's. She looked at her friend, blushing a little as she thought she was found staring, and no words were spoken until Kellyn broke in.

"Okay, you two know each other already, and now that we're all inside, we can talk more," he said, pacing around the room after he was done. He seated himself on the middle cushion of the couch and beckoned for the two behind him to join him. Solana and Murph stared at each other before awkwardly making their way to the couch, sitting on either side of Kellyn. The Top Ranger sighed, running a hand through his brown hair, and looked at Solana.

"Do you know what you're supposed to do?" he asked, not beating around the bush.

"Umm…" She was reminded of the lack of information from Spenser. He told her about Lunick being kidnapped and the Ranger School and Dr. Kipling, but he hadn't mentioned anything about where she was supposed to start looking. And that was bad considering she had never been to Almia in her entire life.

"No," she said finally, an ashamed look plastered on her face.

Kellyn just offered her a warm smile and nodded. "You came from Fiore, right?"

"…yeah?" The subject somehow went from knowing what to do to her home region…

"I lived there before moving here," he told her, still staring into her eyes. She felt like she couldn't look away, like his eyes captivated hers and begged them to stay locked to his. The feeling left her, though, as an awkward one replaced it and she looked away. Kellyn was still a total stranger to her, after all.

Murph cleared his throat suddenly, tensing up as he could _feel _the awkwardness in the air. "So, umm…the plan?" he offered.

Kellyn chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, sorry. I got caught up." He reached into his pocket and yanked out a thick, folded up piece of paper. He unfolded it to reveal a map.

"This is a map of Almia," he stated.

_Obviously, _Solana thought to herself, but otherwise stared at it with Kellyn. It just looked like a big blob to her. A blob with a few dots surrounding it. She silently wondered to herself if she had an eye problem but Kellyn spoke before she could think on it anymore.

He pointed to a spot in the northwest region of the map. "That's the Ranger Union," he said. "That's where we'll be going today, to find out what to do. But unfortunately, it's really close to the Altru building, so we can't go there on foot and if we fly on my Staraptor we'll have to take the long way around so we're not spotted in the sky." He seemed to be just thinking out loud. She listened to him, though, just incase she needed to remember any of this.

And she nodded, continuing to listen to his spoken thoughts, every so often glancing at Murph to check if he was still awake, remembering that whenever they went on missions together he'd fall asleep while listening to Spenser explain what they had to do.

"So when do we leave?" she asked suddenly, bringing Kellyn out of his thoughts.

He paused for a moment. "I'd like to leave as soon as we can. If you're ready now, we can go…"

She bit her lip, a bit worried. "You guys will still be there with me, right? I don't have to wander through this region alone?"

He chuckled again. "We'll be here until you're ready to set off on your own. Spenser told me and Murph to be extremely careful and not to let you out of our sight until it's time for you to leave on your own."

Solana smiled at this. Maybe Spenser really _did _consider her his best Ranger. Why else would he have gone to all this trouble just to make sure she was comfortable?

"But, um," Murph broke in again, twiddling his thumbs. "Since you've had a name change and new clothes and all - " he paused - "you'll have to dye your hair so no one can recognize you."

Plusle poked its head out of Solana's backpack, gasping for air and because of what Murph had just said. It was like a repeat of Spenser's bad news. The Pokemon slinked back into the bag, though, as it saw its owner stand up and kick the coffee table. All her happy thoughts left her now, being reminded of all the bad ones crowding her mind.

"Dye my hair? I've _never _dyed my hair before!" She put her hands on her head, frustration clearly present. And then another disturbing thought crossed her mind and she took her hands off her head, turning around to face the two boys awkwardly. "You guys…won't be doing it for me, right? I can at least get a girl to do it - or _myself_?" She sounded desperate.

"No, no, no, we can get a girl at the Ranger Union to do it for you," Kellyn assured her, bringing his hands up and waving them fiercely to emphasize his point.

Solana nodded. "Good…" She still couldn't believe she needed to dye her hair, though. "What color?" she whispered inaudibly.

"What?" Kellyn asked.

She sighed. "What color?" she repeated, louder this time.

Kellyn and Murph both bit their lips.

"Red," Murph choked out.

She groaned and stomped over to the door, slamming it shut behind her as she stormed out. Huffing, she sat on the ground, leaning up against the house. She hated red. It was the color of her eyes, which she always thought were scary because of their color. It wasn't only that that was bothering her, though, it was the fact that she had to go through all these changes in a matter of just less than a day.

It was all happening so fast. Yesterday she was sitting at home on the couch, playing with Plusle, not a care in the world - and now she was getting ready to save everyone again, it seemed. Why couldn't Lunick have just been here? What did he do to get himself kidnapped, anyway? Why did _she _have to be the one to save the damsel in distress?

She sighed, though, bringing her hands away from her face and wiping away the tear that had managed to escape. She wouldn't cry. Not now. Maybe after this mission was over, but not now. It was best to just get this over and done with.

She was stronger than this, she knew she was. But she'd never gone through such a dangerous mission like this without Lunick beside her, so maybe she was just feeling overwhelmed.

Yeah, that was it. She was sure of it.

…

"Ahh!" Solana cried as she almost slipped off the bird Pokemon, clinging onto Kellyn for dear life. She felt extremely sorry for the Plusle in her backpack, wondering what kind of torture it was going through right now. Once the bird picked up more speed she screamed again, forcing herself closer to the boy, ignoring the fact that her chest began to hurt. She should've been used to flying - and she was, with Dragonite - but riding bareback this high up in the sky unnerved her to the point where she couldn't take it anymore. As soon as tears escaped from her eyes the wind whipped up against her face and dried them instantly, though her face remained red and blotchy. It would soon match her hair once she dyed it. She shook her head, forcing herself not to think about that until they landed. Right now she had to be focused on not dying.

Murph had stayed behind and simply said that he'd catch them at the Union later on in the day. Solana knew it was because he hated flying, and now she could see perfectly why. This was pure horror.

Not a moment too soon the bird finally landed. Solana waited until Kellyn got up, though, still clinging to him as tightly as she could. He laughed as he pulled her up with him, his feet touching the ground at long last. Once she felt hers hit the grass as well, she relinquished her grip, grinning to herself. She bent down and kissed the ground, earning a few confused and awkward glances from the local area Rangers. She didn't care. She was just glad she survived the death trap.

"I'm _not _riding that again," she squeaked out once she stood back up, staring directly at Kellyn, who laughed again. He thanked and said goodbye to the Staraptor, who cawed before flying off.

Solana quickly pulled herself together, fixing her hair as best as she could without her ponytail. She wiped at her face in an attempt to remove all the blotched color from the wind but just gave up, deciding she looked fine anyway. "All right, let's go," she said, steeling herself, not realizing that Kellyn had been watching her.

And he made his way into the Union, her in tow.

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><p><strong>AN: **Ahhhhh, okay. A month and a week after, and here it is. I totally didn't expect to take that long - sorry about that. I also didn't expect to get no reviews and so many viewers, but oh well, I guess. As long as someone's reading it. And someone faved this and put it on their alerts! Thanks for that :P

So I made some changes to the first chapter but they're pretty minor. If you were one of my first viewers and you couldn't tell what I changed, all I did was:

-change some dialog so it wasn't so choppy and crappy

-change a few phrases and some wording to make it less awkward

-made a change to Spenser's directions, adding on that Solana has a codename, Auburn

That's about it, really. I hope to get at least one or two reviews within the next week or so, and I especially hope to get my third chapter done by the end of next week. New schedule for school, though, yay. So maybe I'll have nice teachers that don't give me homework as often as last tri's did. NO MATH! :)

Anyway, thanks to all my viewers! And start leaving some reviews dammit :L

**_10/10/14 again: It feels like every time I look back and edit an old story like this I'm looking at a part of my past, because at one point this was the most important thing to me. Now I have a lot of stories - most of which are in dire need of updating, hehe - that are all close to me, but no matter how good those ones are, I just can't shake the feeling that my older ones like this one here are more special to me. Buuuut I'm just a sentimental fool half the time anyway :P Thanks for reading! I won't ever get these two chapters up to par with my current writing, but at least they're not such eyesores anymore. _**

_~CGA_


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